


Eden

by zephyrprince



Category: Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Genre: African character(s), Black Character(s), Brazilian character(s), Character(s) of Color, F/M, Indigenous character(s), Kayapo character(s), Nigerian character(s), Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, South American character(s), Yuletide, Yuletide 2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 15:46:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephyrprince/pseuds/zephyrprince
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Happy Yuletide 2012! Set within a theoretically larger post-canon tale, Gaia remembers what her life was like before humans appeared on earth and reveals to Ma-Ti and Kwame a little bit of personal history that changes their outlook on the team forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Miranda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miranda/gifts).



Unlike most trees, the gingko is dioecious. That is to say, the plants are sexed with half of specimens being male and the other half female. In purely botanical terms, this simply means that some gingkoes produce pollen cones while others make ovules, which develop into seeds after fertilization. 

But beyond the biological, there was another level of meaning. On a more poetic register, this quirk of evolution made these trees a little more like humans – made them, if one was generous with the anthropomorphism, more capable of love. 

And yet, even for the plant kingdom, not generally known to have produced the most mobile beings on the planet, the gingko could not have been less suited to this attribute. Gingkoes grow their roots thick and deep into the ground, rooting them to their positions. And so if we are to discuss them as lovers, they can only be of the tragic variety, destined for endless longing across unambulable spaces. 

There had been trees in the spirit garden, of course. There were plants of all kinds in abundance in one region or another and unlike the animals who only came in pairs, for each species of plant, there were unknowable quantities. When Gaia thought on it now, in fact, there had been gingkoes there that night, growing on the rocky cliff where the stream poured over the edge of their plane and onto the earth below. Just down the way from the small bridge where she’d found them. 

Ma-Ti was at the edge of his seat. 

“Gaia? Gaia, are you with us?”

Gaia looked down from the branches of the ginko the three of them sat under, breaking the daydream that had briefly carried her away. 

“Gaia, I don’t know what happened then, but if we’re going to able to help…”

Kwame cut in. 

“Ma-Ti is right. In order for us to have any chance at all to change the destiny of the Earth in this new era of global warming. . . well. . . it isn’t enough for you to simply restore our memories of what came before when we were Planeteers, we need to know the whole story. “

Ma-Ti looked uncomfortable with this but Kwame pressed on.

“What happened before the Ice Age? How did Captain Planet become trapped in our rings and who were these other spirits who lived in the garden with you . . .” 

Gaia breathed out a heavy sigh as Kwame trailed off finally allowing himself to register the level of her distress. He smoothed the collar of his United Nations fleece jacket and looked to his human comrade uncomfortably. 

“Every time I take these century-long naps, I lose more and more touch with the epochs that have come before.” She took another wistful pause, “It’s particularly difficult for me to talk about that time because I’m still wracked by sorrow at what transpired and all that was lost.”

“Gaia, we understand,” the deep color of the Kayapo boy’s skin contrasting starkly against the pale white of Gaia’s as he placed his right hand on hers. “But you have to try. We do need to know.” 

Suchi, who had not left Ma-Ti’s neck since their reunion scuttled from the boy’s left shoulder to his right. The monkey gave an auditory affirmation of what his best friend was saying. Gaia smiled remembering her own animal familiar from that same era. . . 

+++

I had had trouble sleeping all evening, but it wasn’t until midnight that I finally got up from the glade where Chukwu and I regularly made our bed. I stroked the snout of my raptor companion, moving his head from my lap and resting it on the mossy ground. 

The garden had been my home for as long as I could remember. Its pairs of animals were normal to me but I took note of the many nocturnal creatures moving about in the undergrowth as I moved through the lushest portion of the area, unaccustomed to seeing my world in the darkness. 

I first caught sight of him when I rounded the corner out of the forest. He was standing on the bridge over a small blue stream right at the outer edge of our world. He was facing away but I wasn’t surprised that he anticipated my approach. When I wrapped my arms around his bare blue abdomen, he didn’t move. He could always hear the wind of movement even without any sense of the visual. I used to tease him that unlike the rest of us, he really did have eyes in the back of his head.

He moved his hands to cover mine. He squeezed. 

“Are you so worried?”

“I’m not worried. . .”

“Because you know what’s coming.”

“I think so.”

“Zarn?”

“He’s already gone.”

I nodded slowly and pressed my face against the deep blue skin of his back. He remained still for some time. I could feel his breathing, the air moving in and out of the heavily muscled chest. I could also feel the water of his blood moving through the tiny vessels all along his skin, the strength of earth in his muscles, and the glow of his heart. 

Suddenly he spun around, gripping me by my shoulders. 

“Gaia, I want you to know. . .”

“I know, Captain.”

We stared into each other’s eyes and I could see the fire of his spirit. 

“If I have to go away, I will. For the sake of this planet. I just fear we will lose our home.”

“Our home will always exist in one form or another.”

“I love you.”

We embraced and I could feel a single tear drop onto my neck. 

“No matter what, my Captain Planet, we are a team. . . . And if we are parted, I vow to change the world.” 

+++

Gaia looked back up at the tragic tree above her head. She didn’t want the boys to see the moisture in her eyes. 

“Gaia, I had no idea. . .” 

Ma-Ti didn’t know what to do, his natural urge to soothe stymied by the pure shock of this revelation. He thought it was a little like being young and finding out that your parents are humans and that they’d had a life, fallen in love, and generally conducted themselves on a day-to-day basis long before you came into the picture. 

And now here were these two – the Captain and Gaia – in many ways the parents of the team, and none of them, not even Ma-Ti who supposedly the keeper of the power of heart, had ever really questioned anything about their background, their past. . .

Kwame was having similar thoughts but remained silent. For him it was less about the past; he was focused on what they could do about it. 

And a new mission sprung into life, one that would run right alongside protecting the planet, one that would define the next decade for the three people present – three people plus one monkey – as well as four more who were not.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this and have happy holidays!


End file.
